In today's world, the translation of texts is vital to developing and maintaining respectable bonds between cultures, as well as cultivate our own hybrid understanding of them. The globalisation of the world has incited new appreciations of culture, which can be evidence in the translation of texts. The importance of this is as follows.
Translating texts can provide insight into a culture that not even travelling to their country can. It allows different cultures to examine and interpret certain ideas and values in alternate ways. Foreign texts are popularised through the translation of them, as cultures have more access to different understandings of the world they share.
In reference to an article written by Anderson Hephzibah at BBC, the number of books English readers read are 97-98% English, eliminating the need for translation. Hephzibah discusses the nature of translated texts and their relevancy in English literature. This can be explained by the historical colonization of English speakers, as well as their geographical locations. Perhaps translated texts aren't appealing to English speakers as they don't present an interpretation of the world most Westerners agree with.
Part 3 of the language and literature course requires a study of translated texts and provides the following as learning outcomes:
"Consider the changing historical, cultural and social contexts in which particular texts are written and received."
"Demonstrate how form, structure and style can not only be seen to influence meaning but can also be influenced by context."
"Understand the attitudes and values expressed by literary texts and their impacts on readers."
The novel of study in this course, "the Thief and the Dogs" provides a thorough understanding of these outcomes. The foreign nature of the novel and the Middle Eastern point of view that the author takes on, differs from that of previous texts we've studied in this course, and is therefore more likely to conjure different impacts on us as readers.
You wrote a good evaluation in which you had some interesting and strong arguments, and backed them up using things like statistics about the numbers of translated texts. You also made clear reference to an article that we read in class. You could have expanded a little when talking about the outcomes in Part 3 of the course, writing a bit about each one instead of a short summary of all three. Mais bon effort!
ReplyDeletevery nice blogpost that has filled my imagination. your statistics are remarkable and the enthusiasm with which you compose your response to the prompt is quite natural. you clearly mention the background of translation and link it back to our course by creating links with the texts read and our focus of the unit.
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